


Give and Take

by GrievousCollection



Category: Dragon Age: Origins - Awakening
Genre: Gen, Justice (Dragon Age) Positive, Justice POV, anders week 2019
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-12
Updated: 2019-10-12
Packaged: 2020-12-13 20:26:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 744
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21003662
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GrievousCollection/pseuds/GrievousCollection
Summary: Justice reconsiders an early assertion.





	Give and Take

**Author's Note:**

> Written for Anders week for the prompt The Kirkwall Medic/Justice. A fic from the spirit’s POV about what led up to their eventual merger.

If, when Justice had been forced out of the Fade, someone had told him that he would eventually possess one of his mortal companions, he would have assured them that he would never do such a thing, that such was an act for demons.

Becoming a demon was one of his greatest fears. He had seen demons in the Fade, seen the injustices they inflicted on the mortals they trapped there. It had been a pride demon posing as a human baroness who had forced him into the mortal realm.  _ That will never be me, _ he had vowed.

But the longer he spent in the mortal realm, the more other fears began to occupy his consciousness. One was death. Another was the expiration of the body he inhabited, and what it would mean for him, or what he might have to do when that happened. When the flesh decomposed, would he die? Would he remain bound to the remains, even if those remains were merely bones or motes of dust? Would he simply return to the Fade? Or would he be forced to find another corpse to possess, displacing another mortal from burial, prolonging other loved ones’ mourning?

The Wardens he traveled with all had their own concerns with his predicament. The symbolically dead dwarf cheerfully assured him that death was coming and suggested putting the twitching of his body to music. The drunken dwarf mocked his lack of understanding regarding euphemism and bodily functions, questioning him on what Kristoff had done with a southern pony and suggesting he try a living host. The elf remarked on his peeling skin and questioned if he could leave the body, plainly objecting to the notion of becoming possessed herself, living or dead.

It was the thief, however, who gave him the most pause. After questioning if Justice would ever need to switch bodies and noting his reservations on possessing another corpse, he not only suggested possessing a living host, but that such a thing would not be abominable if the person were willing.

“Why would a mortal ever allow such a thing?” he had asked.

“For life,” the thief had answered. “For love. Perhaps together, you can do what they cannot do alone. If you gave instead of taking, I would consider you no demon.”

It was a strange thought, but worth considering nonetheless. Perhaps at another time.

The Wardens all faced their own struggles. They all sought justice, or some form of it, each in their own way - the elf fought back against humans for injustices visited on her people, the “dead” dwarf fought darkspawn for the destruction of her home, the thief sought to reclaim artifacts stolen from his family. But there was one Warden in particular whose outlook Justice simply did not understand.

The mage. He had faced oppression at the hands of the templars. Why did he not fight back?

“Because it sounds difficult?” he had ventured.

That was not the complete truth, as Justice soon learned. The mage had a crushing fear of what would happen if he fought back, a fear he masked with jokes and a flippant attitude. The others might laugh or cringe, but Justice soon learned to see through the mage’s jokes - when he spoke of skirts being for easy access, he was uncomfortable with the drunken dwarf’s questions. When he spoke of sizzling tension between himself and the templar who had caught him escaping, it meant that he had been afraid. When he offered to do a “spicy shimmy,” he was poking fun at the idea of existing for another’s entertainment.

And when he asked Justice if he had any desires that could pervert him into a demon, he was deeply afraid of the idea, and not only because of the worry to mages that demons posed.

Justice knew that he didn’t always make sense in the mortal realm. But there was something about the mage’s past, something about his coping mechanism, something about him in general, that called to the spirit. The mage had good intentions, but no drive - if he were only less afraid, what sort of things could he achieve?

Anders might have done his best to appear small and harmless, but Justice saw something more in him. Loneliness. Fear. The ability to save the world if pressed.

“If you gave instead of taking, I would consider you no demon.”

So, to their mutual benefit, he gave. And together, they continued to give.


End file.
